Chapter 10

Percy waited for the signal.

He held Anaklusmos to his chest and calmed his heart. He took long, even breaths, immersing himself into his surroundings. Leaning against a tree, he closed his eyes and let the sound of nature describe the environment around him.

He could hear the sounds of the Romans in their encampment, cheerily going about their day. The contingent that had attacked the Greek camp had returned, and the legion was preparing to set out to Constantinople. It would be their last night near Lychnidos.

He and the Trio had spent a week watching the Romans, watching their daily routines and searching for weak points in their defenses. The Romans had set up just south of the town in a clearing overlooking the lake. There weren't many spots with open terrain in the area, which made getting close to the camp a little bit easier. Still, the Romans built artificial fortifications, including a wooden wall and a dry moat studded with spikes, to protect the camp itself. It wouldn't be easy to get into the camp.

With the Greeks fleeing, the Romans seemed more at ease. Some laughed and joked around, perhaps a way to cope with the terror of war. Others were more downcast. After cleaning up the Greek campsite, and placing a protective shield of magic around Sophia's dead body, he estimated at least a couple dozen Roman casualties. Even more were wounded.

Percy figured it was partly why they hadn't packed up their camp and marched out to follow the Greeks. They had to bury the dead first.

"Ready to kill the Romans?" he whispered to himself.

His forearm grew hot and began to sear with pain. He clenched his teeth as it came and went. He covered his arm with his tunic, trying to ignore the old tattoo.

The shadows swirled around him, and Athanasios—who preferred going by the name Thanas, a nickname Ionna had coined for him—popped out of one of the nearby trees.

"We're ready," he said.

Percy nodded and glanced over at the gates. Right on schedule, a small group of scouts exited the camp. They climbed up on horseback, preparing to set out toward Thessalonica. If their intel was correct, this would be the advance team. They were some of the legion's most elite soldiers. They had trained their whole lives for this very moment. They would blend in with the crowd in Constantinople and search for the Greek demigods.

"Let's begin," he told the son of Hades.

Percy grabbed Thanas' hand, and the two melted into a shadow. When they reappeared, they were standing along the old stone road. Percy had mapped out the route from Lychnidos to Thessalonica, and regardless of which route they took, they would need to pass by this area. It was far out enough that the camp couldn't react immediately, but not so far that it would be difficult to call for reinforcements.

"How are Leon and Xanthe feeling?" Percy asked.

Thanas said, "Leon is trying to help Xanthe relax in the lake. She's nervous. She doesn't know if she can do this. Hades, I'm not sure if I'm ready for this. Last night, they were just camping out like regular kids. I felt like I was watching... us at camp."

"They're still our enemy. This is what you two of trained for."

"I know, I'll be fine. But I'm still a little worried about Xanthe." Thanas' eyes flickered back in the direction of the camp. "Her brother's in this legion. I'm not sure if she can handle fighting against him."

"Leon will calm her," Percy assured him.

Thanas nodded. There was a little uncertainty in his gaze. Percy wasn't surprised. The boys hardly knew each other. It would be weirder if there wasn't any uncertainty between them. Thanas also likely didn't trust Percy completely. Percy's best guess was that Thanas was unnerved by Leon's disposition, wondering how he could be so calm before such a large-scale attack.

Leon was confident in himself. He had plenty of raw power, and if he followed the plan, he would be fine.

Thanas needed some of that.

Percy put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Once we destroy the Eleventh, only three legions will remain. With the distractions they face, we'll have enough time to get to Ionna. I assure you."

Thanas' expression darkened. "I hope so."

The two of them slipped into the bushes, hiding from view.

"Remember, don't move until I finish them off," he told the son of Hades.

Thanas nodded.

Percy put Anaklusmos, in rod form, back onto the hook on his belt. He summoned his bow and crept toward the edge of the bushes. They waited patiently for the Romans to arrive. He could sense Thanas' nervousness behind him. The boy must have been unused to lying in wait to catch prey.

But the Romans eventually came.

They were all on horseback, spread out so as not to impede each other as they rode along. There were probably five or six in total. It was just as they expected.

Percy summoned a tripwire from the Infinity Pouch and tied it to the butt of the arrow. He notched the arrow and shot it across the road. The head of the arrow slammed into a tree, extending a thin line, barely visible to the eye, across the path. Percy yanked back on his end and attached it to a small metal spike. He jammed the spike into the trunk of the tree behind him and checked to make sure that the wire was tight.

The Roman expeditionary force never saw the wire. The lead scout rode straight into it, and his horse tumbled head over heels. With a whinny, it threw its rider off, and the Roman landed painfully on the stone pavement. The other scouts stopped in their tracks, yanking the reins of their horses just before they could go flipping.

"What in Jupiter's name was that?" the lead scout shouted.

Percy nodded at Thanas, who sunk deeper into the bushes. Then, he grabbed a pouch of Greek fire and threw it out into the middle of the road. It exploded, sending the horses into a panic. A few threw their own riders off and fled into the woods. Two of the horses ran with their riders still on their backs.

He stepped out of the bushes, drawing a couple of blunt arrows and firing them at the rogue riders. They hit their mark successfully. The Roman scouts toppled from their mounts and hit the ground hard.

Before the scouts could react to his presence, he grabbed Anaklusmos. He touched his fingertips to the sensor, and the sword sprung to life.

Instantly, he swung his blade and caught two surprised Romans before they even reached their swords. They crumpled like dolls.

"Graecus!" the lead scout snarled.

Percy whirled around, blocking a strike. He deflected the blade away and stepped forward, driving the hilt of his sword into the Roman's face. The Roman stumbled back and clutched his face with his free hand. Percy spun and kicked him across the face. It knocked him out cold.

There was one Roman left. And he smartly decided to run back toward the camp.

For a moment, Percy considered knocking him out cold, but he realized their plan would still work. Percy deactivated Anaklusmos and let out a sigh. He looked around at the bodies, all unconscious. He glanced back at the bushes, where he saw Thanas staring at him in awe. Percy winked and drew a dagger.

"You know what to do," he told the son of Hades.

Thanas nodding and melted back into the shadows.

Percy went around to each of the unconscious bodies and slit their wrists and necks. By the time reinforcements could make it, they would likely be dead. And if, somehow, they were brought back to the camp, Leon and Xanthe would take care of them.

After finishing the Romans off, Percy slashed open a cut on his forearm, wincing as he drew blood. He squeezed the red liquid out and began to jog away from the camp. Reinforcements wouldn't be too far out. He hoped they were observant enough to see the blood along the stone.

There were more explosions nearby. Percy kind of felt bad from the dryads, but what could they do. They needed to draw the Romans out. The Trio had helped him rig lines of Greek fire throughout the woods. Thanas had to go to each of them, one by one, activating them and creating the illusion that there was an advance Greek force ready to attack the Roman encampment.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. Leon had received the signal.

While the Romans split up, Percy would draw the Romans to the other lake. Thanas would sneak up behind them, summon an army of undead warriors, and trap them. It was a similar plan on the other side. Xanthe and Leon would lure them to the first lake and drown the legion.

Following the plan, Percy kept moving down the path. He shook his arm out, hoping to splatter more blood on the ground. He glanced over his shoulder every now and then, checking for any signs of Roman troops.

When he could finally see the second lake, he stopped and bent down to tend to his arm. He muttered a few incantations, closing up the wound with magic. There was still a nasty-looking scar, but at least it wasn't bleeding. He needed as much energy as he could muster up to bend the lake to his will.

"There!"

Percy looked up. The reinforcements had found him. He ran off the path, into the woods, toward the second lake.

The four Roman scouts were quick, but he'd been running from gods for hundreds of years. They had no hope in beating him, especially in a long-distance run. He took the rocky, dangerous path down. It was quicker, forcing the Romans either to risk injuring themselves or take the long route around.

He felt an arrow whiz by his head. Taking a quick glance over his shoulder, he saw one of the Romans wielding a bow. It must have been a legacy or son of Apollo. The other three were on foot, wearing light armor and only holding their daggers. Running with a gladius in hand wasn't exactly energy efficient. And a dagger was definitely deadly enough to kill someone.

Percy summoned his bow again and fired an arrow at the archer. It caught him in the shoulder, forcing him to drop his bow.

The three scouts were right on his heels.

He would have to fight here. Percy drew Anaklusmos and charged forward. Stunned by his bold move, they fanned out in an attempt to divert his attention. He smiled and kept running.

The Romans were caught off-guard, and the one who'd charged at him head-on was met with a sword to the gut. Percy spun around, using the skewered Roman as a meat shield as the other two turned to fight.

Feeling more confident about fighting the one on the right, he yanked Anaklusmos from the skewered Roman and kicked him toward the Roman on the left. It was a temporary distraction, but enough to give Percy the moment he needed to cut down the Roman on the right. Percy slashed the Roman's wrist, forcing him to drop his dagger, before swinging across and catching the man's throat.

As he fell, Percy whirled around and parried a strike from the last Roman. Percy dashed in, closing the gap between them, and drove an elbow into his chin. The Roman's head snapped back and he lost his grip on his dagger. Percy caught it midair and drove it through the Roman's gut. The Roman stiffened in shock.

Percy pulled the dagger out and slashed across his chest with Anaklusmos. The large mark across the Roman's chest went right through his armor, and blood began to ooze from the wound. The Roman collapsed, moaning in stunned pain as he bled out.

He looked down at himself, checking for any wounds. Other than a small cut across the back of his hand, he hadn't been touched.

Dropping the dagger, he lifted Anaklusmos and trudged back toward where he'd shot the archer.

The Roman archer had left his bow on the ground. He'd also left behind a trail of blood.

Percy put Anaklusmos away and summoned his bow again. Following the trail of blood, he found the Roman walking back toward the path. He was clutching his shoulder in pain, keeping the arm on that side as straight and stiff as he could.

On the stone path was another group of Romans. It was bigger this time, maybe twenty in total, but still not the full legion. Percy hoped his little provocation attracted a few more Romans than the twenty in front of him.

One of the twenty soldiers, probably the leader, saw him and was shouting at the injured archer to run.

Percy grabbed an arrow and drew back on the bowstring. He took aim and placed his shot. It soared through the air, wobbling from the snap of the string. It hit its mark exactly, catching the Roman archer in the back, slightly off-center. The archer stumbled, freezing for a moment, before collapsing in a heap. His head hit the edge of the stone pavement. He'd been so close to safety.

Thunder roared in the distance. Leon had begun his attack.

The leader of the twenty Romans barked an order, ignoring the rumbling sky, and they formed ranks. Chanting a war cry, they advanced with amazing speed.

Percy retreated back down toward the lake, purposefully leading them down the long path. As he hoped, more Romans were arriving. Another contingent of reinforcements marched through the forest from the north, and two others came from the road.

He figured somewhere between sixty and ninety Romans had come to meet him.

Clearly, they hadn't been expecting a one-man show. And, as far as he could tell, that only seemed to make them angrier.

A few of the brave ones tried to challenge him, whether it was one-on-one or four-on-one, but he didn't hesitate to cut them down. They tried to catch him with a storm of javelins, but he was able to use the trees to his advantage. The Romans couldn't organize in the thickets and shrubbery. The devastating killing machine was rendered useless on this battlefield.

Just like at Cannae, their overconfidence would be their downfall.

Percy didn't see Marcus, so he figured the man was at the encampment. He was one of the few smart ones that wouldn't have pursued him into the forest.

He continued backing off until he stepped out into the open. He could hear the lapping waves behind him.

The Romans converged on him from all sides, giving him no escape. What none of them knew was that he was a son of Poseidon and that, with the flick of his hand (and a lot of energy), he could drown them all. But that wasn't the purpose of fighting the Romans. He needed Thanas to fight.

"Yield, graecus!"

Percy gripped Anaklusmos tight. Any time now, Thanas.

A sudden growl rippled from the woods. The Romans at the back of the formation whipped their heads around at the sound. Some of them gasped. Others screamed. Percy grinned.

Four giant hellhounds stalked out from the forest, their lava-red eyes glaring straight at the Romans. They were each easily larger than a fully-grown hippopotamus. Percy had been to Egypt several times, and hippos were not to be trifled with. They looked like pudgy, fat things, but those animals could take down crocodiles, which were by far the scariest apex predator in the world.

"Pila!"

A wave of javelins rose up, cutting through the air and toward the hellhounds.

Two of them were caught in the shower, one of them exploding into a pile of dust. The second howled in pain as it barely escaped death. The other two roared and charged forward into the Roman line.

Percy grinned as the Romans closest to him now had their attention on the chaos ensuing behind them. Four Romans were tossed into the air by each of the two unaffected hellhounds, destroying their formation. The third hellhound recovered and begun its attack on the Romans.

Behind the hellhounds, Thanas emerged from the woods with a contingent of twenty elite-looking undead warriors. His eyes were focused as he led the undead warriors forward. He summoned his sword, the Stygian iron as black as night, as if sucking away the daylight around him.

Percy readied Anaklusmos and jumped into battle.

While they were distracted, Percy cut down two more Romans before they blocked him off. The centurions were barking orders frantically, trying to reform their ranks. Percy saw the shields close up as they locked into formation. They fell back into a defensive square, switching to their pila.

The undead and hellhounds converged from all sides, just as the Romans had done to Percy moments before. Percy remembered Irene and Hannibal at the head of the Carthaginian army that day at Cannae when the Roman army was surrounded and slaughtered.

He couldn't contain his smirk. Are you watching, Apollo?

Boom! Another clap of thunder.

But the battle wasn't over yet. The Romans managed to take down two hellhounds, minimizing their casualty count. Percy kept attacking in holes here and there, but their defensive formation was difficult to pierce.

A part of him felt proud. With Marius' reforms, and Caesar's legions, he had helped develop Rome's infantry tactics so that even the stupidest of men could fight in battle. The Romans, raised and conditioned for war, were far more receptive to the idea than the idiotic Greeks of the old era. Even in the present, Chiron essentially forbade him from training Greek heroes that made it to camp. And even though he'd been involved in the affairs of the gods ever since he returned from exile, it was pretty much impossible for him to keep track of every demigod in existence.

The other part of him was annoyed. He'd made it too effective. Once the Greeks during the Peloponnesian War decided that they would rather fight amongst themselves than direct their attention to their true enemy, Percy changed up his plan from supporting the Greeks to turning the Republic into a tyrannical empire, easily manipulable from behind the scenes. It took until after Archimedes helped fix his mind for his plan for revenge to truly begin, and by then the Greek city-states were run by tyrants served by self-interest. The Greeks would have to fall to rise again.

With three of the hellhounds gone, the Romans split into two groups and advanced in opposite directions.

Percy was forced deeper into the water while the larger group of Romans advanced on Thanas. Thanas was in trouble.

Percy growled and cut down two more Romans. He couldn't afford to summon a large wave and disorient the Romans without putting Thanas at risk. He could drown the group in front of him, but in the time it would take him to do that, the Romans would already have had a sufficient opportunity at killing Thanas. And the Romans were a lot stronger than Thanas' undead army with their numerical advantage.

He knew it was probably stupid to put the Trio right into battle without training them first, but the Eleventh was isolated and it was the smallest remaining legion. It would be silly not to try while they were preparing to move, while they were reeling from earlier casualties and the wounded.

Percy bit his tongue and made his move. He summoned the lake and bent it to his will. He swept up the group of surprised-looking Romans and pulled them into the lake. In their armour, they had no chance of surviving. Twenty Romans would rest at the bottom of the lake until their bodies decomposed.

He could feel them struggling against his grip, but he clenched his fist and concentrated. After a few moments, the resistance stopped.

The sun's glare seemed a little bit harsher than before, but that only encouraged him. He whirled around at the other Romans with a smile. The ones at the back were staring at him in shock, yelling at the others to pay attention.

Percy screamed as loud as he could, mimicking the battle cries from the old days in Troy. The winds picked up around him, feeding off the energy of the lake. As he advanced, the winds grew into a storm. Lightning flickered around him, and his ears popped.

The last hellhound howled as the Romans temporarily halted their advance. Using Percy's show of power as a distraction, the beast trampled over several surprised Romans. Several more frightened Romans fled.

Percy summoned his bow and picked them off before they could disappear into the wild.

The ground rumbled, and more undead warriors began to crawl out of the earth. Percy looked over and saw Thanas off to the side resting on his Stygian iron sword. He was panting, clearly tired from summoning the hellhounds and undead warriors.

Despite Roman prowess in battle, they were susceptible to many weaknesses, as with any army. Once caught off-guard, immediate attacks would prevent them from reforming their ranks. Especially if the threat came from all sides. Many of the new undead warriors were missile units, meaning slingers and archers.

Unable to cohesively switch to testudo, the rocks and arrows picked apart the dense center of the formation.

There were, at his count, only five Romans who successfully fled when the fight was over.

Thanas saluted all the undead warriors, and they collapsed into piles of bones and sank into the ground. The last hellhound had been killed by the Romans.

Percy smiled at him, impressed by the number of undead he'd summoned. "Good job."

Thanas shook out his sword arm. There was bad cut near his elbow, but he didn't seem fazed. "What about the five who fled? We need to catch them."

Percy shook his head. "They'll be headed back to the encampment. They won't know that Leon and Xanthe will have attacked. By now, the whole place should be flooded and burning. Once they're all there, we'll finish them off."

The son of Hades nodded.

"Here, give me your arm."

Percy took his arm and performed a bit of magic. It wasn't strong, probably because he'd spent much of his energy fighting the Romans, but it was enough to stop the bleeding. Thanas muttered a thanks underneath his breath and continued forward.

The two of them cleaned up the bodies. Percy counted roughly eighty in total. When they were done, they made their way back to the camp.

Thanas looked tired. Percy watched the boy's gait. He dragged his feet often when he walked. If the Hunters were watching him, they'd figure out how to identify Thanas pretty easily. Quietly, he shuffled behind Thanas and covered up his tracks.

As expected, when they arrived at the encampment, it looked almost deserted. The moat was now full of lake water. Several of the buildings were on fire, and bodies were strewn everywhere.

Percy marveled at the damage. It must have taken a lot of energy for Leon and Xanthe to cause this much destruction. Around the camp, there were several Romans still alive. Some had incapacitating injuries and would die soon anyway. Some were simply trapped underneath the debris and wreckage.

One by one, Percy executed them. The two of them trudged through the camp to make sure there were no survivors until dusk. The count was about one hundred and twenty.

"Where's the last bunch?" Percy asked.

Thanas stared what looked to be a dead couple, reaching out for one another in death. The man had a hole in his chest and the woman had drowned. "Everyone we scouted is dead. Drowned. Burnt to ash. Suffocation. Killed in battle."

Percy pursed his lips. "Are you confident in saying that?"

He hesitated for a moment. "I... I think so. If there's anyone we missed... there's too few of them for it to matter."

"And the Sky and Sea?"

"Safe." He winced and brought a hand to his chest. He mumbled quietly. "Shit..."

"What's wrong?"

"Ionna..." Thanas trailed off, his eyebrows knitting together in concentration.

"What about Ionna?" Percy asked.

"I..."

"Who goes there?"

Instinctively, Percy ducked behind cover. Thanas followed his lead, though his expression was become increasingly concerning. Peeking out, Percy saw a couple of soldiers crest the hill at the center of the encampment, overlooking everything. They were dressed in more modern armor, the lamellar-type of body armor rather than the segmented cuirass of the traditional Romans, and had rounder shields. These weren't traditional Romans. They were the Emperor's troops.

"We should go," Percy told Thanas.

The son of Hades nodded, turning and sneaking toward the back entrance to the camp.

"They're probably no threat," Percy whispered. He kept his eyes on the soldiers. "But we have to be careful."

"Ionna..." Thanas grunted. His voice was strained. "We need to get to Ionna."

"We have to find the others first," Percy said, slipping into the shadow of the tree, careful not expose himself as the Emperor's soldiers examined the burning wreckage. "Xanthe and Leon are probably off to the west anyway."

Thanas cursed, clutching his chest as if in pain. "Ionna's in danger, though. I can sense something's off."

Percy stared at him for a moment, wondering if he was being extra sensitive. But he trusted Thanas' senses. He doubted Thanas was feigning worry for a show. He gestured downstream, and the two of them snuck off. As they followed the stream, Percy kept watch with Anaklusmos drawn. "How off? What kind of danger is she in?"

"I can't tell exactly."

"Thanks. That helps."

"I just mean that I can't pinpoint how much trouble she's in," Thanas scowled. Worry returned to his eyes. "I feel like if we don't go now, something bad will happen. We can't let her die. I... I know Xanthe and Leon are important, but Ionna holds the key. If she's really off to find the old statue, then she can tip the scales of the war in our favour."

He was right. Percy muttered a few curses under his breath. They hadn't developed a contingency plan just in case things had gone wrong. Percy stopped and turned to the stream.

Thanas stared at him. "What are you doing?"

Percy dropped to a knee and dipped his fingers into the water. "Are you there, spirit of the creek? Answer my call."

They waited in silence for a few moments. There was nothing but the dribble of the stream, the flickering moonlight, and cool night air. Then, the river seemed to pick itself up. A figure emerged, stepping out of the water and onto land. The water morphed into the form of a young woman around Xanthe's age.

"You stain the soil with blood," the naiad said darkly. "What more do you ask for?"

Percy gestured back to where they came from. "A child of the sea and a child of the sky are out there somewhere. If you find them, tell them to go to Rome."

The naiad stared at him. "And in return?"

"A blessing from Poseidon." He reached into his pocket and produced a sand dollar. "Expunge the filth from your waters."

The naiad took it carefully. A trace of a smile graced her lips. "You will have your wish granted. Be careful, son of Poseidon. Your enemies lie in wait. And the worst one of them all is right on your heels."

She took a step back, put her feet in the creek, and smiled before turning into water and melting away.

Percy ignored the strange look Thanas was giving him. He knew who the naiad was talking about. The enemy right on his heels was himself. He set his jaw and gestured west.

"Let's go. To Rome."

Hey, y'all. I know it's been a while (3 weeks, in fact). Again, I always want to stay a certain of chapters ahead of what I'm posting, and so far I've been writing a bunch of excerpts for chapters ahead that differ from one another. Actually, right now I'm at a certain part of the story where I know what I want to happen before and what I want to happen after, but I want to put something in the middle that makes it flow a little better. The problem I'm running into is taking the time to develop characters' relationships while making it meaningful to the plot. In my head, I understand how they feel and why the story will end the way it does, but you all can't read my mind.

I'll do my best to try and develop the characters more, but don't be surprised if I fall flat. I'm not really a writer. I just do this for fun.

Have a great weekend!

Sharky